And so we just rely upon him
to reveal things to us here. We know who wrote the book, Solomon,
and we know that he was a man blessed of
God with great wisdom. God said to him, I'm going to
give you wisdom like nobody has had before you and that nobody's
going to have since you, after you. No other man other than
the man, the Lord Jesus himself, who is himself wisdom. But really
we just look at a verse tonight in chapter two. He's been talking
about wisdom. The one who had wisdom told us,
get wisdom with all of your getting, get it. That's a pretty good recommendation.
Somebody that had it from God said, you need to get it. You
need to have that. You got to have that. And in verse 10 in chapter two, he said, when wisdom entereth
into thine heart and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, discretion
shall preserve thee. and understanding shall keep thee." This is so instructive, just
these few words. Think about what he's saying.
When wisdom enters into your heart, wisdom's got to enter
in. It's not there by nature. You
don't have any wisdom of your own. It's going to have to enter
in. You must receive it, verse 1.
He said, receive it. In the form of what? If you don't
have wisdom, you're going to have to hear some words. You're
going to have to read and hear some words. Receive my words,
he said. And then he said, you'll cry
after it. You'll search for it as people search for silver or
hid treasures. if you ever realize the value
of wisdom. But it must enter into your heart.
You know, Solomon talking about wisdom here, the Apostle Paul
talked about wisdom in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Look at that. He's
talking about the same We speak the wisdom of God, Paul
said. Just like God had given Solomon
wisdom, Paul said, He gave us wisdom too. And we speak wisdom,
the very wisdom of God, in a mystery. It's mysterious. It's hidden
to those who can't understand. Here's why. He explains what
he means by that. It's a mystery. Which God had
ordained, which God ordained, even the hidden wisdom which
God had ordained before the world unto our glory. God's wisdom
is going to come and we're going to be glorified because of it. Our ultimate end is glory with
Christ. And that's going to come through
wisdom. You're going to have to know some things which none of the princes of
this world knew. You're going to have to know
some things that the smart people, the mighty people of this world,
generally speaking, aren't going to know. For had they known it,
they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it
is written, I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them
that loved him You can't see you can't hear you can't know
It can't enter into your heart except verse 10, but god hath
revealed among us He did it by his spirit the one
that he spoke to nicodemus about The wind blows where it pleases
And you can hear the sound there of you can't tell where he came
from or where he'll go So it is with everybody that's born
of the spirit By His Spirit, He gives us the wisdom of God.
He opens our understanding. He makes us able to know Him. God hath revealed them unto us,
Peter. Flesh and blood did not reveal
it unto you, but my Father revealed it unto you, who I am. For the
Spirit searcheth all things, yea, The deep things of God,
the Spirit can reveal things to you that man cannot know any
other way. What man know what the things
of a man? Say, the Spirit of man, you can't
know anything really about me unless I tell you. I know and
hear things that you can't know. That's what he's saying. The
Spirit of man, it's in him. You don't know me. You think
you know me. Even so, the things of God knoweth
no man but the Spirit of God. He's got to reveal to you what
you cannot otherwise know. Now we have received, not the
Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God. That's
why we know things that others don't. That we might know the
things that are freely given to us of God. Hidden, mysterious
to some, freely given to others. The Lord Jesus said, I thank
thee, Father, because you've hidden these things from the
wise and prudent and freely given them to babies. Revealed them. Which things also we speak. Paul
said, that's what I'm telling you. I'm not telling you anything
that's my opinion or something I've come up with, but what the
Spirit of God has revealed unto my heart, I'm gonna tell you.
I'm going to speak that. Not in the words which man's
wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing
spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them, because he is flesh. Flesh
is flesh. Spirit is spirit. They are spiritually
discerning. He's nothing but flesh. But he
that is spiritual judgeth, that word is discerneth, if you look
in your margin there, discerneth, or in other words, knows, understands
all things. What all things? The things of
the Spirit of God, the things that the Spirit reveals. What
did Christ say? I'm going to go from you. You're not going to see me long.
I'm not going to be with you much longer, but I'm going to
send my spirit to you, a comforter. And he's going to take the things
of mine and reveal them to you. That's what we know, what he
reveals to us. Nothing else, no more, no less. Not the natural man, he can't
receive them. But he that is spiritual discerneth
all things, yet he himself is discerned of no man. God's words
are a mystery to the lost, and we are a mystery to the lost.
For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct
him? But we have the mind of Christ.
By his grace he has revealed his mind, his will, his very
heart to his people. That's what Solomon is saying
here. When that happens, when that happens, when wisdom enters
into your heart, it's got to come from outside of you because
you don't have it otherwise. Not the mind only, the heart. That's interesting too. We're
looking at the word inner first, but now let's look at the word
heart. It enters into your heart. Now
we've already talked about 1 Corinthians 13 in connection with this, how
that though we have all wisdom and yet we don't love or have
the love of God shed broader than our heart, we're nothing.
So the wisdom, the kind of wisdom that God gives has something
to do with love. Paul said the wisdom that doesn't
love is worthless. And Solomon's saying this wisdom
I'm talking about is worth everything you have and everything you could
ever want to have. So, we're talking about a wisdom
that has something to do with love. The love of God. There is a wisdom that does not
love, and it is not the wisdom of God. It's worthless, Paul
said. But God's wisdom enters the heart. That's where this
thing of love comes in. It enters into your heart. Not
just your mind. It has to enter the mind, of
course. know something in your heart
that you don't hear with your ear and process in your mind
to some extent. But faith is not a mental, intellectual
assent only. We know that from God's Word,
from many places in God's Word. Paul said in Hebrews 11.3, through
faith we understand that the world's We're framed by the word
of God. Through faith we understand. So it's faith that enables us
to know. We understand through faith.
You got to believe God before you can learn of him. And so
It's through faith that we understand all that is true, and faith is
a heart work that's seen all through the book. It's a heart
work that God performs, which alters all of man's affections
and all of his desires. When the merchant man is seeking
goodly pearls, when he finds that pearl of great price, he
doesn't just to start talking about how superior that pearl
is and say here's why this pearl is better than this pearl no
he sells everything he has and buys it you see that's the difference
between the mind and the heart I've got to have that pearl I'm
not just And I believe he did, because
he didn't just acknowledge the truth and say, I believe what
you're saying, and then get on with his life. He said, I will
be baptized. What does hinder me to identify myself with this
Jesus Christ? It's described also, this thing
of faith and life, this thing that enters into the heart when
God comes in power. It's described as the giving
of a new heart. in Ezekiel 36, 26, because it's not a change
made in the old nature. He doesn't alter our original
nature. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. It always will be flesh. But
it is a new birth, a new nature that we are made partakers of.
As Paul called it, or Peter said in 2 Peter 1, 4, we're partakers
of the divine whereby are given unto us, Peter said, exceeding
great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is
in the world through lust. And so notice also in verse 10,
now we've seen the word inner, it gotta come from outside of
you, you don't have it. And it's going to come to your
heart. It's going to change your very wisdom enters into your heart.
It happens in time. It happens at a certain time.
There is a time when God imparts wisdom, this faith to believe
God. It's called the time of love
in Exodus 16, 8. It's called being born again
in John 3. You must be born again. Birth is an event that happens
in time. We got a couple of those coming
up among us. It's going to happen of your second birth too. It
came to pass exactly when he ordained. Until then you won't. You can't
enter in, you can't see, you can't perceive the things of
God until that when takes place. Only when wisdom enters into
your heart will you see as the disciples did when our Lord said,
blessed are your eyes for they see. There is a blessed when. By God's grace I've experienced.
And many of you have. John Newton had too. He wrote
about it. He said, he wrote of the experience of all believers
when he wrote, I once was lost. There was a time, there was a
win when I was lost. But now, I'm found. Not I once was lost, but now
I've found my way. No, I was found. I was blind, but now, Now I see. God delivered us one
day from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom
of his dear son. And see in our text what will
happen when wisdom enters into your heart. He said wisdom will enter into
your heart and knowledge will be pleasant unto your soul. Now think about for a minute
again the difference between knowledge and wisdom. And we
see the order of this is correct. And it's a blessing to see this.
It's instructive. Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. A man can know many things and
yet be completely unwise in that knowledge. Another man can know
very little and yet have great wisdom, by God's grace. But Solomon here said, when wisdom
enters in, then that which is known, that which you know will
be sweet to you, not before. Not before. Now you think about
that. See if this is your experience.
Before God gives wisdom, That is, faith and understanding,
the knowledge of God, is not used rightly. In Romans 1, we
read about it now. In Romans 1, those ones described
there had knowledge when they knew God. When God had revealed
what He reveals in nature unto them, they knew God, but they
glorified Him not as God. Turn over there with me, Romans
1, 21. Look at this now. Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. And Solomon said, when wisdom
enters into your heart now, what is known will be sweet to you.
It'll be sweet. Romans chapter one. Verse 21, because that when they
knew God, they glorified him not as God. Neither were thankful,
but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened."
Now, why does Paul mention those two things? They had a knowledge
of God that God had revealed to them. A basic, certainly,
knowledge. His eternal power in Godhead
is revealed in the things that are made. But they had a knowledge
of God and two things. Why did he mention those two
things? They didn't glorify and they weren't thankful. You know
why I mention those two things? Because that's what any knowledge
of God should cause in the creature. If you have any knowledge of
who God is, I don't care what it is, how basic, how simple,
how elementary, whatever knowledge God has given you of himself,
it ought to cause you to glorify him, and it ought to cause you
to thank him. But they didn't. They had some
knowledge, but wisdom had not entered into their heart. And
so that knowledge was not used rightly by them. They knew now
that God was worthy of glory. They knew that he was worthy
of glory because his eternal power in Godhead, Paul said,
had been revealed to them. But they would not glorify him. They knew that he was worthy
of thanksgiving. They knew that he had made the
world. And everything in it, the things
that they partook of when they sat down to dinner that night,
they knew that was from the hand of God. Paul said, but they weren't
thankful. They weren't thankful for that
sunlight that warmed them in the morning and caused their
crops to grow. They weren't thankful for the
moon at night and for the blessed coolness in the evening that
was so refreshing. And all the blessings of nature
that God has given to all of mankind. if they had wisdom, that knowledge
would have caused them to glorify God and to thank Him for what
He had done. They would have given Him the
glory due to His name. The right use of knowledge would have caused
them to be thankful unto Him for all that He had given them
and done for them and their consequences for their deliberate refusal
to honor God was that God gave them over to a reprobate mind.
Ah, but Solomon said, when wisdom enters into your heart, that
which you know, that which God has revealed, it'll be sweet
unto you. You'll find it pleasant to attribute
unto God the glory that's due unto his name. You'll find it
sweet to honor him as he's worthy to be honored. You'll say with
David, David said, I was glad when they said unto me, let's
go into the house of the Lord. That was sweet to David. He wanted
to go worship God. The truth that God has elected
a people from before the foundation of the world. You know, False
religion knows that that's true. Did you know that? They know
that that's true. They'll sit there and argue with
you all day, but they can't read the Word of God without being
confronted with it every time they read. To a great degree. Now, there
are those who just don't read and don't hear anything, so they
don't know, but when confronted with that truth, it's undeniable. I've watched people bow up, I've
watched the vein stick out on their neck, and I've heard the
most blasphemous things come out of their mouth when confronted
with the truth of God's electing grace, that He has a chosen people
that He loved from the foundation of the world. And because He
did it with loving kindness, He drew them to Himself, predestinated
them to be conformed to the image of His Son. And that knowledge,
when it comes to your mind, will be pleasant if and only if wisdom
has entered into your heart. It'll be offensive otherwise.
There ain't nothing pleasant about it by nature. And that's
what Solomon's talking about here. By faith, God has already
entered into the heart now if it's pleasant to you. He's entered
into your heart and like that good ground, your heart has been furrowed
and cultivated and the seed fell into good ground and took root
and grew well. That's what wisdom does when
it enters in, when the spirit comes and enters in. And the reason that God's free
electing grace is pleasant to our mind and heart is because
the knowledge of our sinnerhood has come to us by the gospel. When wisdom has entered in, that
knowledge will be sweet to you. How can it be sweet to somebody
to tell them what a rotten, filthy, nasty worm they are? Because
it's the truth. It's just the truth. And you
know it's true when wisdom's entered in. And you'll rejoice
to know it. The fact of it is not pleasant,
but the knowledge of it is. The knowledge of it. To know
that it is. It's better to know, isn't it? I want to know. We
know of our total depravity, our utter inability, and therefore
we know what the songwriter wrote. He said, it's not that I did
choose thee, for Lord, that could not be. This heart would still
refuse thee if thou hadst not chosen me. My heart owns none
before thee, for thy rich grace I thirst, this knowing, if I
love thee, thou must have loved me first. Now you know why he
thirsted for that rich grace? Because wisdom had entered into
his heart. And the knowledge of that truth
was sweet. Sweet. And when the glorious
knowledge of the invincible, almighty, redeeming power of
Christ and Him crucified, comes to the wise heart, the heart
made wise by God's spirit. It's sweet. Not to the natural
palate. You start speaking of Christ's
invincible grace, of the redeeming power, the effectual redeeming
power of his blood. And natural, unregenerate sinners
start thinking, well, wait a minute. That leaves my will out of it.
You bet your bottom dollar it leaves you well out of it. And
if God ever enters into your heart in wisdom, it'll be sweet
to you. But for God, you'll be glad of
it. It's not pleasant. to the natural unregenerate religionist
that Christ's precious blood did not merely give sinners a
chance to be saved, but actually washed his people from their
sins. But it's sweet to me about you.
Solomon told us why. Because wisdom has entered in.
Something has happened to us. Something outside of ourselves.
has come into our very heart. The very wisdom of God. And now
it's sweet to us, because we know it's right. A dead man don't
need a chance to live. He needs to be given life. You can give a dead man every
chance to live, and he's still going to be dead. What a dead
man needs is life. Life-giving power. Can these
bones live, Ezekiel? The Lord asked Ezekiel, And Ezekiel
said, Lord, I don't know, but you do. The only one that can
know whether these bones, these particular bones can live is
the one who has power to give them life. If he gives it, they'll
live. If he doesn't, they won't. You have he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins. The irresistible power of God's
grace is the inevitable companion truth to that of the effectual
redeeming power of our Savior's sin-atoning sacrifice. If Christ
redeemed you, in other words, if he actually did redeem his
people, which he did, then the Holy Spirit will bring you, will
quicken you. He goes where he will and gives
life, gives the new birth to whomsoever he will. And he will
quicken all who are represented by Christ. He said, I pray not
for the world, but I pray for those that you've given me. He
represented as high priest all those sheep for whom he said
in John 10 that he had laid down his life. Every one, he said
of all those that the father has given me, I shall lose nothing,
but shall raise it up again at the last day. That truth is pleasant
to me. And the reason it is, is because
God has given me wisdom. He's opened our understanding
that we might understand the scriptures. And not just give mental assent
to some facts, but we love the truth. We love the truth. And
more to the point, we have received the love of the truth. That's
what happens when wisdom enters in. Now let me show you that. Well, you can turn there or not.
Paul, speaking of the last days in 2 Thessalonians 2.8, and I'm
almost through, I'm going to be very brief tonight, but in
2 Thessalonians 2.8, Paul talking about the last days, and here's
what he said. Then shall that Wicked, capital W Wicked, his
very name is Wicked, be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with
the spirit of his mouth. As Martin Luther wrote, one little
word shall fail him. The spirit of his mouth will
destroy him. and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.
Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all
power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish." Why do they perish,
Paul? Because they received not the
love of the truth. You see how that goes with our
text tonight? Wisdom enters in. Paul said received. What happens when it enters in?
You love the truth. Solomon said, when wisdom enters
in, the knowledge of God will be sweet to you. Your love is
true. He's saying here, these ones
will perish. Did you hear what God said right
there? These ones will perish. Why? If you do not perish in
your sins, it will be because you have received of the love
of God's truth. Because God has put wisdom into
your heart in so much that when the knowledge of Him, the knowledge
of yourself, and the knowledge of how He saves sinners by His
righteousness and precious blood, the knowledge of how God can
be just and justify you came to your ears. And it didn't offend
you. It didn't make you mad. It was
pleasant. You received the love of the
truth. Thank God for the truth. And
let me make one more statement. Thank God and praise His holy
name forever for the love of the truth. Do you love his truth? I can see in your faces, some
of you, that you love his truth. Because when his truth goes forth,
you just look like you're in love. You're in love with him. And what a privilege tonight
to come to his table. And he said, as often as you
do this, you do show forth my death.